[ProgressingAmerica]

If anybody wants on/off the revolutionary progressivism ping list, send me a message

Progressives do not want to discuss their own history. I want to discuss their history.

[central_va]

Wilson and Lincoln destroyed the republic.

[3Fingas]

The Declaration of Independence is the justification for our existence as a nation. It is also our escape clause should the leaders of this nation ever stray too far from their legally established powers. It precedes and supersedes the covenants that bind us should that sad day ever happen when an ascendant tyranny has extinguished all chance for peaceful redress. Let us hope that day never comes.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I would tend to mostly agree. Unless, of course, people like Wilson and Obama strive to throw the toke of tyranny back on We The People.

However, what is of great consequence is The Constitution. Should tyrants decide to ignore the limits laid out there, then The Declaration should be the anvil on which We forge the hammer to crush them.

"This country belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
--Abraham Lincoln

[backwoods-engineer]

Many Americans don’t realize it, but until Obama, Woodrow Wilson was the worst, the most statist, the most anti-freedom president the United States has ever had. And in light of Carter, Clinton, the Roosevelts, and in some aspects, Lincoln, that’s saying something.

[Maceman]

It should surprise no one that the party of slavery now opposes freedom for the People in general. The only real problem that Democrats have with historical chattel slavery in America is that the slaves were privately owned.

“Our Founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than I would like sometimes.” -- Barack Obama, February 7, 2012

``If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government’s ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.’’ -- President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993

``The purpose of government is to reign in the rights of the people’’ –- Bill Clinton during an interview on MTV in 1993

``We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans…that we forget about reality.’’ -- President Bill Clinton, quoted in USA Today, March 11, 1993, Page 2A, ``NRA change: `Omnipotent to powerful’’’ by Debbie Howlett

“When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly… that they would work for the common good, as well as for the individual welfare… However, now there’s a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there’s too much freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it.” – Bill Clinton, April 19, 1995

[JoeFromSidney]

It's worth noting that the tripartite form of government under the Constitution (separate executive, legislative, judiciary) is a direct response to some of the grievances listed in the Declaration. For instance, one of those grievances is that Royal governors called the colonial legislatures to meet at inconvenient times and places. Under the Constitution, the two houses of Congress determine their own places and times of being in session. The President has no power to call Congress into session. He can request it, but can't order it.

The Constitution must be viewed in the light of the Declaration. It's not something totally independent.

[Ohioan]

The "preface" is where all of the important stuff is at. Unalienable, god given rights. That "nonsense". Knowing that helps to put all of this into context.

You are as wrong, though in a different direction, than was President Wilson in the address that you quote. Certainly the Preface is important, in setting forth the basic understanding of the proper relationship of a people and their Government; moreover, an understanding validated both in the experiences of the settlers over six generations, and in their heritage, dating at least from Magna Carta.

But certainly the declaration of State sovereignty--the legal function & purpose of the Declaration--is of immense importance, as is the long recital of specific grievances, leading up to it. While all of those grievances may not have seemed still relevant in Wilson's day, they illustrated pragmatic examples of the theoretic, which served as still applicable guides to what was proper. (Today, actually, more of those grievances have present day parallels, than they did in Wilson's era.)

See Declaration Of Independence--With Study Guide.

William Flax

[huldah1776]

Never ceases to amaze me that any document will not be deciphered in it’s historical context unless the person wants to skew or destroy the principles put forth in that document. NO federal employee should be working for the government unless they adhere to and defend the original intent of the Constitution and Declaration including Biblical principles. Every employee should take an oath to defend those documents in historical context or be fired. Amend the Constitution.